ABC World News with David Muir, in not an atypical half hour on June 21, 2024, presented America with sensationalist deaths by pool electrocution in Mexico, riptide in Florida, and a charging elephant in Africa. This proves once again that nightly TV news has set an extremely low bar devoted primarily to the video-supported death and destruction sleaze news. ABC’s nightly news offering to America is essentially TMZ with a thin black tie. Long gone are the days when newsmen and women informed rather than entertained, elevated rather than debased, investigated rather than accepted. Gone are the days when news organizations provided a public service rather than a private service to enrich owners, producers, and sponsors. There once was a time when broadcasters had to comprehend rather than merely read, and criticize rather than agree. Today’s news corporations devote themselves to greed rather than science and democracy.
